‘Partition: 1947’ will tell untold story of tragedy, says Gurinder Chadha

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 12

England-based Gurinder Chadha, internationally acclaimed movie director, has asserted that her forthcoming movie ‘Partition: 1947’ will unravel the untold story behind Partition. She said it would showcase the political compulsions of the then international powers to divide a big country to continue their sway in the Indian subcontinent.

About her choosing the subject on the 70th anniversary of the independence and the Partition, she says that she is better placed to comment over the reasons leading to the Partition as she is half British and half Punjabi. Besides, her grandmother’s family had to migrate to India from their ancestral Jhelum area, now in Pakistan.

She visited that area in Pakistan in search of the ancestral house but could not locate. However, it gave her an idea to explore the reasons and events leading to the Partition through the psychology of the rulers of British India and their political compulsions. She elaborated that her movie will show how the last Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, had to oversee the transition of British India into two independent nations.

Huma Qureshi, lead actress of the movie, said the film narrated the story of trauma that people went through due to the division and how it changed their lives. She said, “Like mine, many families are still divided in the two neighbouring nations. Half of our relatives are residing in India while others in Pakistan.”

This movie marks the international debut of Huma Qureshi. Huma essays the role of Aalia, a Muslim woman, who is an interpreter to Hugh, who plays the role of Lord Mountbatten, the man charged with handing over the country back to Indians.